Herero Chat
Namibornis herero
Brown chat with a dark face mask, a pale eyebrow, and very faint streaking on the underparts. Found very locally in a specific microhabitat: the bands of somewhat lusher woodland around the base of rocky escarpments at the edge of the Namib Desert. Usually in pairs. Quiet but distinctive song is a four-note series of mournful whistles. Fairly similar to Familiar Chat, but easily separated by bold face pattern.
Identification
The Herero chat has a length of 17 cm (6.7 in). The adults have a blackish mask, similar to that of a shrike with a wide white supercilium and a white throat. The upperparts are brown, warmer more red in colour on the rump and tail, although the central feathers of the tail are blackish-brown. The underparts are whitish, sometimes washed brown with faint dark streaks.
Taxonomy
The Herero chat was first formally described in 1931 as Bradornis herero by the Italian-born American ornithologist Rodolphe Meyer de Schauensee with its type locality given as Karibib in Damaraland in Namibia. In 1935 R. D. Bradfield proposed the new genus Namibornis for this species, noting that he thought it was more closely related to Cossypha than Bradornis. The Herero chat is classified within the Tribe Muscicapini in subfamily Muscicapinae, meaning that it is a Old World flycatcher rather than a chat and is closer to Bradornis than Cossypha, within the family Muscicapidae.
- Scientific name
- Namibornis herero
- Authority
- (Meyer de Schauensee, 1931)
- Order
- Passeriformes
- Family
- Muscicapidae
- Genus
- Namibornis
Range and habitat
The Herero chat is found in southwestern Africa where its range extends from the far southwest of Angola through western Namibia as far south as the Naukluft Mountains. This is a locally common species found on inselbergs and escarpments with scattered Acacia, Maerua shrubs, Commiphora and Terminalia trees, particularly where the vegetation follows drainage lines.
- Migration
- Resident species
Conservation
- Population trend
- stable
Photos
Distribution
Bird Calls
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